There is a strong demand in the health care industry for medical devices that facilitate the timely, cost effective, and efficient means of treating patients. Medical devices that are able to provide the above advantages over currently employed practices may allow for the health care providers and the health care recipients to both lessen their costs and increase their quality of care through the rapid detection of potential problems before more intensive intervention and treatment is necessary.
In a health care setting (e.g., a hospital, recovery facility, home-health environment, etc.) the patient may spend a large portion of their time unaccompanied in their bed within their room. While the health care staff may routinely physically check in on the patient's well-being, due to the presence of a multitude of patients for every staff member, the rapid detection of potential problems may be lacking. In these situations the ability to remotely collect data regarding the condition of each patient may prove beneficial to their care.
Accordingly, there exists a need for medical devices capable of collecting data regarding aspects of a patient's condition, transmitting said data to health care professionals, and potentially alerting health care professionals if rapid intervention is necessary.